Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.

Sharia and the United States Constitution *UPDATED*

One of the blessings of the Constitution over the years is the way in which people have been able to practice their religion freely, even while living within the Constitution’s parameters. Nothing in the Constitution runs afoul of Judeo-Christian faiths, Hinduism, Shinto-ism, and other religions that don’t involve animal or human sacrifice. The Constitution, in other words, meshes nicely with God.

The same cannot be said of Islam. This is because, as you all know, Islam seamlessly combines religious procedure and doctrine with civil law. Since all come from God, there is no difference whether you’re talking about the commitment to monotheism, the rules requiring Muslims to fast during Ramadan (a perfectly do-able activity under the Constitution), or the God-ordained rules authorizing all forms of slavery, mandating different civic treatment for non-believers, controlling banking laws and generally dictating the minutiae of both Muslim and non-Muslim life.

Here is just a snippet of Sharia strictures, rules that devout Muslims interpret as being as inextricably intertwined with their faith as Mass is for Catholics, along with just some of the countervailing Constitutional provisions that ought to preempt them:

1- Jihad, defined as “to war against non-Muslims to establish the religion,” is the duty of every Muslim and Muslim head of state (Caliph). Muslim Caliphs who refuse jihad are in violation of Sharia and unfit to rule. [1st Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."]

[snip]

8- A Muslim who leaves Islam must be killed immediately. [1st Amendment; 5th Amendment: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation;" 8th Amendment: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."]

10- A Muslim will not get the death penalty if he kills a non-Muslim, but will get it for killing a Muslim. [1st Amendment; 14th Amendment: "1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.]

11- Sharia never abolished slavery, sexual slavery and highly regulates it. A master will not be punished for killing his slave. [5th Amendment; 13th Amendment: "1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation;" 14th Amendment.]

12- Sharia dictates death by stoning, beheading, amputation of limbs, flogging even for crimes of sin such as adultery. [8th Amendment.]

13- Non-Muslims are not equal to Muslims under the law. They must comply to Islamic law if they are to remain safe. They are forbidden to marry Muslim women, publicly display wine or pork, recite their scriptures or openly celebrate their religious holidays or funerals. They are forbidden from building new churches or building them higher than mosques. They may not enter a mosque without permission. A non-Muslim is no longer protected if he leads a Muslim away from Islam. [1st Amendment; 13th Amendment.]

[snip]

16- Banks must be Sharia compliant and interest is not allowed. [1st Amendment.]

20- There is no age limit for marriage of girls. The marriage contract can take place anytime after birth and can be consummated at age 8 or 9. [Take your pick.]

Read the rest of this long, long list here. Then try to imagine a world in which Sharia law can coexist with the American Constitution. I can’t.

What this means is that those who say that sharia and constitutionalism are essentially harmonious — as the Ground Zero Mosque imam repeatedly says when the MSM is listening — are either lying through their teeth or they are practicing an Islam purged of theocratic totalitarianism and have simply forgotten to tell people that they have unilaterally embraced a reformation that purged Islam of its unconstitutional elements.

UPDATE: Andrew Klavan has been more than usually inspired when it comes to exposing the fallacies and condescension behind the whole Left wing meme that only irrational people guard against Islam’s encroachment against core American ideas and geographical sites. I especially like the way he distinguishes between actual religious belief and behaviors that affect other people in a civil society:

A religion is only a system of beliefs, and to say that all beliefs deserve equal respect or acceptance is to say that ideas have no moral weight, a patent absurdity. Because the human soul thirsts so for God, the sacred principle of individual liberty demands that religion be given wide latitude when it comes to internal mind-states, modes of worship, and the description of the metaphysical. But when it comes to the practical affairs of humankind, humankind may judge—and Islam, as the world stands now, has a lot to answer for.

The State cannot dictate my relationship to God, but it can protect my fellow man.

Share this:

Well said, Book! You cannot have an alternative legal system and still claim to have sovereign control over those poor citizens subject to that “alternative power structure”. For every person who would want to live under Sharia Law (and not merely sharia custom, but LAW), how many would prefer not to, and suffer under it, and wonder what happened to the country they *thought* they were living in?

We had a dust-up in Texas with a cultist named I think Jessops, running his own little feifdom under the guise of a religious community/retreat. I believe the case against him was weak due to lack of evidence, but I’m still convinced he was running his people under his own law and punishment scenarios.

You can’t do anything about indoctrination and brainwashing, which can lead many people to remain in situations that they ought to leave. Having said that, I have no problem with like-minded people VOLUNTARILY choosing to live in communities together subject to rules and restrictions on behavior that are different from what most Americans see in their lives – as long as those rules and restrictions do not run afoul of ANY actual American LAWS.

And, more importantly, so long as the people in those communities are free to leave, and to repudiate the beliefs that brought them there in the first place, at any moment of their own choosing. That last point is critical, and it is where the Islamists fall flat on their face due to their belief in the death penalty for apostasy. That is entirely a violation of everything it means to have individual freedom as an American, and that cannot ever be compromised. Those who advocate the death penalty for apostates are engaging in DEATH THREATS, and I would go after them with the full force of American Law.

Writing this blog is a labor of love. However, if you'd like to donate money for my efforts, please feel free to do so: